Over-the-shoe dance tap attachment

ABSTRACT

An over-the-shoe tap plate carrying accessory slipper for tap dancers is a unitary molded slipper made of a stretchable elastic material having a top strap held relative to a sole by upright straps, and being stretchable to fit over a street shoe. The accessory slipper carries heel and toe tap plates that are removably affixed to the bottom of the sole of the accessory slipper, and which are attached with screws that are threaded into embedded nuts in the sole.

This application refers to and claims benefit of priority on U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/045,707, File Apr. 17, 2008, thecontent of which is incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates to a dance tap plate attachment slipperthat is placed over a shoe, such as an athletic shoe, street shoe, orother footwear. The attachment is an over-the-shoe slipper that has asole and an open upper formed of joined straps. The slipper isstretchable to fit over more than one size of shoe, and which hassecurely attached but removable dance tap plates at both the heel andthe toe.

Various types of attachable dance taps have been advanced, but theexisting over-the-shoe removable taps tend to shift and are notpositively located, and/or are useful only in connection with separateattachments at the toe and the heel. An example is shown in U.S. Pat.No. 4,288,930.

Tap shoes, which are meant to be worn directly on the foot, with a sockover the foot, also have been advanced with removable taps. However, thepresent over-the-shoe slip-on dance tap attachment disclosed herein isvery secure, lightweight, and permits practice dancing using verycomfortable shoes that the student or dancer selects.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

A stretchable over-the-shoe dance tap plate attachment slipper is madeout of elastomeric material and fits over the toe, against the heel andalong an upper of a street shoe worn by a dancer, and carries dance tapplates at both the toe portion and the heel portion. The stretchableover the shoe dance tap attachment slipper is very lightweight and isformed with molded straps with large open sections around the sides, toeand heel of the upper. The slipper has thicker sole portions at the toeand heel. The sole has an open space between the heel and the toe soleportions. This makes the over-the-shoe slipper attachment solestretchable so that it can be used with more than one size of shoe, andthus is relatively easy to put on, because the midsections of the sidesof the upper of the attachment will stretch readily, and then contractsto fit tightly against the rear of the heel and over the forward end ofa toe of a street shoe, such as an athletic or running shoe, or otherstreet shoe as desired.

In addition, the sole heel and toe portions carry nuts that are flushwith or recessed below the upper sole surface and locked in place, orthey may be embedded into the sole material. The nuts are secured sothey will accept attachment screws for attaching conventional tap platesto the heel and toe of the sole. The tap plates can be removed andreplaced when desired.

The arrangement thus provides for a low cost interchangeable shoeattachment for holding dance taps in a proper position on a street shoe,athletic shoe or the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of an over-the-shoe dance tapaccessory slipper made according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view thereof;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view thereof;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view thereof showing the dance tap accessoryslipper in place on an athletic shoe; and

FIG. 5 is a bottom perspective view with the dance tap accessory slippershown in place on an athletic shoe.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

The over-the-shoe dance tap accessory slipper is illustrated generallyat 10, and it includes a sole 16 attached to a slipper type upper 12made as an integral molded unit of elastomeric material. The upper has atop rim strap member 14 that encircles a shoe 30 (FIG. 4) from the toe,along the sides and around the back of the heel. The top strap 14 issupported along the sides of the upper 12 with straps 18. The straps 18are separated by large openings 20. The slipper is preferably molded asone piece.

At the heel there are side panels 19 that extend upwardly from the sole16, and a heel strap 22 that is an extension of strap 14 at the heel isseparated from panels 19 by an opening 24. The panels 19 form a lowerheel strap 25 which also wraps around the heel of the shoe 30. A rearupright heel strap 26 joins the lower heel strap 25 and is also moldedto the rear of the sole 16. The rear heel strap 26 and lower heel strap25 are engaged by the heel of the standard shoe 30 shown in FIG. 5 forexample, and urge the toe portion 36 of the upper 12 to firmly engagethe toe of the street shoe. This illustrates that the shoe 30 worn by adancer using the present attachment slipper can wear athletic shoes forcomfort while practicing.

The sole 16 of the attachment slipper has a large center opening 32, toform a sole toe portion 16A and a sole heel portion 16B and to againreduce the weight of the upper 12. The opening 32 also provides for areduced cross section in the in-step area of the sole that makesstretching the slipper easier. The toe 36 of the upper 12 has a fronttoe strap 38 joined to the sole and extending forwardly and then curvedupwardly to attach to the top strap 14. There are openings 40 along theopposite sides of the front strap 38.

The unitary, elastomeric (rubber-like) upper 12 can be made shorter thanthe shoes on which it is to be worn and is stretchable longitudinally,since the narrow top strap 14 and the large openings 20 and 32 permitthe stretching. This permits slipping the upper 12 over existingfootwear easily and the over-the-shoe-slipper will be usable across twoor three shoe sizes. The elastomeric material will tend to return to itsnon-stretched size to grip the shoe worn by the dancer tightly.

The sole 16 has a pair of removable, but fixed in place dance tapplates, including a toe tap plate 42 and a heel tap plate 44, both ofwhich are metal. These tap plates 42 and 44 are fixed to the bottom ofsole 16 with suitable screws 50 for the toe tap plate and screws 52 forthe heel tap 44.

Screws 46 are threaded into suitable embedded nuts 46 for the toe tap,and nuts 48 for the heel tap, that are shown in FIG. 3. These nuts 46and 48 can be entirely embedded in the sole material, so they are notexposed at the top, or can be formed by flange nuts that have prongsthat will sink into the sole surface and are flush with the uppersurface or inner side of the sole 16, as is illustrated for convenience.

Sole 16 is also capable of being stretched at least in the range of 10%of its length by pulling the toe section forward, and letting the upperstrap 14 stretch, to ensure that the over-the-shoe dance tap accessoryslipper can be placed onto more than one size of street shoe. Theopening 32 reduces the cross section of the sole to permit stretching.Stretching is also made possible by the openings in the sides of theupper, as shown.

Once the over-the-shoe tap accessory slipper is placed onto a shoe asshown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the user is immediately provided with tapswithout changing shoes, and while wearing shoes that are comfortable forthe user. The over-the-shoe tap accessory slipper stays firmly in place.There is no need for removing shoes, and putting on a separate tapshoes. The over-the-shoe tap accessory slipper is thus easy to use,economical, and provides for a wide range of uses by different dancers,for practice purposes, primarily.

The sole 16 includes the toe or ball of the foot portion 16A and theheel portion 16B which are unitary, in that the slipper parts are notseparate pieces. The insertion of a shoe is easily done by stretchingthe elastomeric material upper and the upper straps and the soleelastically contract or letting is return to grip the user's shoe. Thestretch fit ensures that the tap plates will be held in place on theshoe while tap dancing.

Because screws are used for retaining the tap plates in place in theembedded nuts 46 and 48, the tap plates are tightly held and yet can beremoved and replaced as needed.

Although the present invention has been described with reference topreferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize thatchanges may be made in form and detail without departing from the spiritand scope of the invention.

1. An over-the-shoe dance tap accessory slipper comprising a singleflexible elastic slipper having a unitary toe portion and a heelportion, and a top strap held relative to the sole by spaced uprightstraps and extends from a heel to a toe, the top strap being stretchablesuch that the toe portion can be stretched relative to the heel portionto permit insertion of a standard shoe, the toe strap fitting over aportion of the toe of a standard shoe when in place, a toe tap plate anda heel tap plate positioned only at bottom of the toe portion and thebottom of the heel portion of the accessory slipper, respectively, andremovable fasteners to removably secure the tap plates to the bottom ofthe heel portion and the bottom of the toe portion, respectively.
 2. Theaccessory slipper of claim 1 wherein the removable fasteners for theheel tap plate and toe tap plate comprise screws threaded into embeddednuts in the sole of the accessory slipper.
 3. The accessory slipper ofclaim 1 wherein said heel portion and toe portion are connected by thetop strap, and upright side straps connecting the top strap to a sole ofthe slipper.
 4. The accessory slipper of claim 1 wherein said accessoryslipper has a sole and the sole has an opening defined therein betweenthe heel portion and the toe portion to aid in stretching the heelportion and toe portion of the accessory slipper carrying the tapplates.
 5. An over-the-shoe slipper comprising a unitary elastomericsole and upper and being stretchable to fit over a shoe, a toe tap plateremovably fixed to a bottom surface of a toe portion of the sole, and aheel tap plate removably fixed to a bottom surface of a heel portion ofthe sole.
 6. The over-the-shoe slipper of claim 5, wherein the uppercomprises a top strap extending from a toe of the upper, along sides ofthe upper and forming a wrap around heel strap, the top strap beingjoined to the sole with a toe strap and side straps.
 7. The over-the-toeslipper of claim 5, wherein the heel tap plate and toe tap plate areheld in place with screws threaded into embedded nuts in the sole of theslipper.